I’m passionate about bringing practical mindfulness into the every day lives of busy people. Mindfulness can mean a lot of things, but I use it in the broadest sense–learning to be aware of our internal experiences and meeting them with curiosity and kindness.
If I rewind to earlier in my career, I was working in a pretty overwhelming jobs and struggling with chronic migraines. I was saying yes to just about anything that was asked of me and being pretty tough on myself. The migraines became debilitating enough that my normal approach of just pushing through the pain was becoming untenable. I began a real journey for help and answers.
I began to learn to meditate and found incredible benefits from it. In the stillness of the practice, deep emotions would come up of which I had not previously been consciously aware. The formal practice that I did translated into more mindful awareness in my normal life. I started building the skill of choosing a response instead of reacting automatically. I felt my confidence grow as I was less hijacked by my emotions. I was becoming more patient with and accepting of myself, and more resilient in the face of challenges.
Eventually I completed a two-year Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Training through University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, studying under two of my heroes in the field: Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. I am now happy to work with individuals or groups looking to build a meditation practice, to work with chronic pain, or to introduce more self-compassion into their lives.
I am married to an incredible and supportive husband and we live together in Chicago with our two young children.